Gerda in Sweden eBook

Everyone seemed charged with the electricity, and
little Karen said softly, “I never felt so strange
before. The lights go up and down my back to
the tip of my toes.”

“It is the elves of light dancing round the
room,” said Birger with a laugh.

“No,” said Gerda, “it is the Tomtar
playing with the electric wires.”

Then, as they all stood watching the wonderful display
in the heavens, the door opened and Lieutenant Ekman
came into the room. “Here is a letter for
Karen from her mother,” he said; “I have
had it in my pocket all day.”

“Oh, let me see it,” said Karen, and she
turned and ran across the room. Yes, ran,—­with
her crutch standing beside the chair at the window,
and her two feet pattering firmly on the floor.

“Look at Karen,” cried Gerda. “She
has forgotten her crutch!”

Karen held her mother’s letter in her hand,
and her two eyes were shining like stars. “I
feel as if I should never need my crutch again,”
she said. Then she turned to Fru Ekman and asked
breathlessly, “Do you believe that I will?”

“I am sure that you won’t,” replied
Fru Ekman, stooping to kiss the happy child.
“I have noticed for a long time that your back
was growing straighter and stronger, and you were
walking more easily.”

Gerda clapped her hands and ran to throw her arms
around her friend. “Oh, Karen,” she
exclaimed, “this is the best birthday gift of
all! The Tomtar sent it on the electric wires.”

“No,” said Birger, “it was the elves
of light dancing across the room.”

But Karen looked at the little family clustered so
close around her. “It is my crown of joy
and is from each one of you,” she said; “but
from Gerda most of all.”

CHAPTER XV

THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL

It was the middle of June. School was over and
vacation had begun. Gerda and Birger were on
their way to Raettvik, taking Karen with them so that
she might see the great midsummer festival before going
to spend the summer at the Sea-gull Light.

“Isn’t this the best fun we ever had,—­to
be travelling alone, without any one to take care
of us?” asked Birger, as the train whizzed along
past fields and forests, lakes and rivers.

“It feels just as if we were tourists,”
replied Gerda, straightening her hat and nestling
close to Karen.

Karen dimpled and smiled. “I don’t
see your wonder-eyes, such as tourists always have,”
she said.

“That is because we have been to Raettvik so
many times that we know every house and tree and rail-fence
along the way,” answered Birger. “We
have stopped at Gefle and seen the docks with their
great piles of lumber and barrels of tar; and we have
been to Upsala, the ancient capital of Sweden, and
seen the famous University which was founded fifteen
years before Columbus discovered America.”

“Last summer Father took us to Falun to visit
the wonderful copper mines,” added Gerda; “but
I never want to go there again,” and she shivered
as she thought of the dark underground halls and chambers.